Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I bought a '92 JG 320 over a year ago and finally got motivated to change the strings. It had a set that went 12-16-24w-33-42-56 that were not true flat wounds, but not rounds either. I'm thinking they're RIC compressed round. The ball ends are plain brass and there are no silks. Anyway, intonation was way off when I bought it and I spent a lot of time getting it close. Had to remove the low E spring and shorten several others in the bridge. I finally gave up and put it off until I changed strings.

That was today. I put a set of TI 12-16-20w-27-37--50 jazz flats on it. Love these strings! Much lower tension and even without messing with the intonation they are closer to correct. I have one nasty problem, though. The open D now sounds like a sitar. Fretted notes on the D string are fine. Looking at the nut it looks like someone really reamed that slot and now it's way too wide for the 0.027 string. The nut is original--can't tell if it is bakelite or delrin.

Short of replacing the nut entirely is there anything I can do to fix this? Advice is much appreciated.

Doug

You can use super glue to re-fill the slot and the file to the proper size. Remember bottom of the slot must angle up toward the fret board with the highest point of the slot at the fretboard edge of the nut, or the "sitar" buzz will continue.

Thanks, Ken. I'll give it a try in the coming week. I've modified a new premade nut for a Tele copy before, just not a (really nice) Rick. Right now the neck is settling in to its new balance with the reduced tension strings.

Ken is right, but if it was mine I would likely get a new nut.

I'll eventually get/make a new nut, but don't have time for that magnitude of project at the moment. Just want to get it playable with the new strings...

Quick update--I filled the original slot a little bit at a time with gel CA over the weekend. Last night I finally had a spare hour to finish the job. I little careful work (and liberal use of blue tape) with a razor saw, my modified feeler gauge files, and some 800 and 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper and I'm back in business. No more sitar! The best part? The fix is not visible. The TI strings really work well on these little guys. Thanks again for the assistance.